THE "ROYAL" SHOW IN 1840 



with regard to methods rather than principles, 

 and it never interfered with the continuity of our 

 friendship. " Difficulties," he used to say, " were 

 made to be overcome," and, if it were urged that, 

 something he had in his mind was " impossible," 

 he was apt to think that every argument was met, 

 when he remarked that he had no such word as 

 " impossible " in his dictionary. Although he 

 did not compass all his ends, he often succeeded 

 where another, with less confidence, would have 

 failed. He worked upon broad lines, leaving 

 details to others, and he preferred to rely upon his 

 own resourcefulness which rarely failed him 

 for help at a pinch rather than upon anticipatory 

 preparation, whilst a state of high pressure seemed 

 rather congenial to him than otherwise. 



He made himself at home wherever he went, 

 and his natural, unaffected ease of manner helped 

 him to hold his own in whatever company he 

 found himself. He was a good raconteur with a 

 most retentive memory, which enabled him to 

 hark back upon the past to the interest of his 

 listeners. He was fond of recalling his visit as 

 a boy to the Royal Agricultural Society's fourth 

 show at Bristol in 1840, on land, now built over, 

 near the Victoria Rooms, and he would draw 

 instructive comparisons between the nature and 

 dimensions of that exhibition and its successors 

 in after-years. He attended the big dinner held 

 on that occasion in the show yard when 1700 sat 

 down, and there were seventeen toasts a greater 

 infliction than would be borne patiently nowadays. 

 That he was an adept at promoting friendly dis- 

 course was testified to by the cheery conversational 



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